God in the day when I chose Israel and lifted up my hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob and made my self known unto them in the land of Egypt when I lifted up my hand unto them saying I am the Lord your God In the day that I lifted up my hand unto them to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them flowing with milk and honey which is the glory of all lands Then I said unto them Cast ye away every man the abomination of his eyes and defile not your selves with the Idols of Egypt I am the Lord your God To say no more this appears evidently from the name of JEHOVAH under which God was constantly worshipped from the giving of the Law till the coming of Christ. For this name imported no more than the Immutability of the Divine Nature and Constancy in effecting his Promise the Completion of which should necessarily as often return into their Minds as that most Holy Name was taken into their mouths And therefore at that moment in which the Promises were compleated God made himself known unto the Jews by this name Jehovah saying unto Moses Exod. VI. 3. And I appeared unto Abraham unto Isaac and unto Jacob by the name of El Shaddai or God Almighty but by my name Jehovah was not I known unto them As if he should say I was known indeed unto your Forefathers by my Attributes of Greatness and Omnipotence whereby they were intirely satisfied that I was able in due time to conferr upon them all those Benefits which I had promised to them but my Attributes of Veracity and Immutability were not sensibly made known to them by the Completion of those Promises These now you see performed and consequently are convinced that I am a God true to my Promise and invariable to my Resolutions By this Name or under this Notion will I be henceforward worshipped by you The exceeding Care which God took to perpetuate the Memory of these Benefits among the Jews does manifest it to have been the best means of preserving Religion and the true Worship of himself among them To this all the Rites and Ceremonies of the Law in some mea sure tended but especially the grand Festival of the Passover was instituted for no other Purpose than to continue the remembrance of their Deliverance out of Egypt Annual repetitions of the History of those Benefits were enjoyned and Parents commanded to teach them to their Children on the severest Penalties The greatest part of the Book of Deuteronomy which was in more frequent use among the Jews than any other Book of the Old Testament is employed in repeating the Favours of God and urging the Duty of gratitude arising from them And as if the whole Duty of that People consisted in retaining the Memory of those Favours Moses in one place seems to require nothing else of them Who after he had described the Excellency of that Law and Religion which God had revealed to them subjoyns Only take heed to thy self and keep thy soul diligently least thou forget the things that thine eyes have seen and least they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life but teach them thy sons and thy sons sons Deut. IV. 9. He was sufficiently assured That if this grateful remembrance were preserved among them it would draw along with it an universal Obedience to the whole Law And therefore as our Savioâ—…r summed up the whole Duty of Man in the Love o God and our Neighbour so he comprized all in a thankful remembrance of the Divine Benefits Afterwards when the deplorable Idolatry of the Jews for which God caused them to be led into Captivity had almost effaced the Memory of their miraculous Deliverance out of Egypt and by a new Prodigy of Mercy God had brought them out of Captivity and replaced them in their ancient Possessions he tells them he would not any longer be worshipped by them as the Author of that almost forgotten Benefit of their Deliverance out of Egypt the Memory of which was grown faint among them but as the Author of the late Restitution the remembrance of which was yet fresh in their Minds and might therefore be supposed to produce a greater Sense of gratitude in them For thus he bespeaks them Jerem. XVI 14 15. Therefore behold the days come saith the Lord that it shall no more be said the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt But the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the North and from all the lands whither he had driven them and I will bring them again into their Land that I gave unto their fathers The same words he repeats in the XXIII 7th and 8th Verses So studiously did God indeavour to oblige the Jews to pursue their own Happiness in the true Worship of him by heaping new Benefits upon them and inculcating the Memory of them in all solemn Acts of Worship Under the Gospel also God continues to be worshipt as the Author of some signal Benefits as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we obtained Redemption from our sins and Deliverance out of the spiritual Egypt the bondage of Sin and the Devil In every Act of our Christian Worship the Memory of this Benefit is presented to us while we are taught to direct our Prayers to him and to worship him in the Notion of the Father which cannot be without recalling to mind his infinite Mercy manifested in our Redemption which was designed by him and effected by his only begotten Son All the Sacraments and external Worship of the Christian Religion tend no less to preserve the Memory of this Benefit than did the Rites of the Jewish Law to Commemorate their Deliverance out of Egypt particularly the Holy Eucharist which was intended for the constant and most solemn Act of the Christian Worship was instituted to this very Purpose to preserve a lively Memory of that great and final Act of our Redemption to represent to us the Death of our Saviour and continue the Memory of those stripesby which we were healed and of that blood by which we were cleansed If by the degeneracy of latter Ages it hath in great measure failed to produce that Effect for which it was at first intended that is to be ascribed to that deplorable disuse of the Celebration of it which crept into latter Ages and is continued in our times That universal decay of Religion and Piety which we all acknowledge and lament cannot with so much Reason be attributed to any other cause as to this the Memory of our Saviours Passion and with that of our Redemption sensibly decayed in the minds of Men when that venerable Mystery began to be discontinued which was instituted on purpose to continue for ever a lively Representation of it in the Church Men perhaps may retain an Historical remembrance of
to be to us the grand Motive of obedience to his Laws II. That it is the best and most effectual Motive which could be employed for that Purpose I. Then That gratitude or c. And this appears from the very Nature and end of Religion which was intended to bring Man to the practice of his Duty and consequently to Happiness and Salvation by other Arguments than what arose from the bare Consideration of the Divine Attributes and our own Relation to God our Creator our Selves and our fellow Creatures suggested by the light of Reason If these Considerations had been duly pondered by our first Parents they would have prevented the Misery of their Fall And that they were sufficient none will deny who acknowledgeth their Fall to have been an Effect of Choice not of Necessity Yet was the light of Revelation which God conferred on them very small and dim in respect of that Evidence which God conferred on following Ages He shew them the means whereby they might obtain remission of their Sins by promising that in due time The seed of the woman should break the serpents head and thereby to the Obligation of Creation added that of Redemption But it was the Memory of their Creation yet fresh in the Minds of men that maintained Religion in the world and preserâ—…ed a right Sense of the Majesty of God and their Duty to him It could not so easily be forgotten that God had produced Man out of nothing and eminently distinguished him from all other Creatures by giving him Dominion over them So great a Benefit could not easily be obliterated from their Minds but for many Ages kept alive an awful regard of the Divine Power and Beneficence When the Memory of that decayed and therewith an universal Corruption of Life and Manners ensued God re-inforced it with the Benefit of preserving Noah and his Family from the common Destruction of Mankind His Descendants could not but for many Ages retain a lively Sense of so signal a Mercy which had rescued them from an universal Calamity and manifested thereby how dear they were to God Yet in time the remembrance of this Benefit grew faint and Men thought themselves little concerned in that which was common to them with the rest of Mankind I mean the Benefits of Creation and Preservation They required nearer and more particular Testimonies of the Divine Favour which being appropriate to themselves might distinguish them from other Men by a greater Participation of the Divine Bounty This was the effect indeed of an irrational Judgment and prevailing ingratitude for was it not enough that God was the Author and Continuer of their Beings to engage them to his Service But an effect to which the corrupt Nature of Mankind was so prone that to restore decayed Religion in the World and revive the true Worship of himself he found it necessary to set apart a peculiar People whom he might oblige by particular Benefits to retrieve that gratitude which the Sense of his universal Benefits ought in all reason to have produced yet wanted its effect Hence forward God was worshipped primarily not as the Creator of Mankind and producer of the ordinary effects of Providence but as the Author of particular and peculiar Favours Which however could have no other direct influence upon the minds of Men thus signally obliged than to produce an extraordinary Sense of gratitude since the common Benefits of Creation and Conservation tended more naturally to beget a right Apprehension of the Divine Omnipotence and our dependance on it Thus God separated Abraham from the rest of Mankind and assured him with his Posterity to himself by a particular Covenant and Promise of giving to him the Land of Canaan Upon which account he was worshipped by Abraham under the Notion of the Author of that Promise by Isaac as the God of his Father by Jacob as the God of Abraham and the fâ—…ar of his Father Isaac by their Descendants till their Deliverance out of Egypt as the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob that is as the God who by the Promise made to their Forefathers had entailed upon themselves particular Blessings After their Deliverance out of Egypt and those many wonders and prodigies wrought in Favour of them God chose to be worshipped by them as the Author of that Deliverance and ushers in all his Commands with this Preface I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egpt out of the house of bondage And accordingly he was in all succeeding Ages worshipped by them under that Notion as appears from the frequent Commemoration of that Benefit in the Old Testament and the whole System of the Jewish Religion In which God challengeth Adoration and Worship from them not as the Author of their Creation but of their Deliverance who had so signally employed his Almighty Power in their Favour and by the very words of the Covenant so often repeated declared himself to be their God and them to be his people whereby he manifestly implyed that he intended to distinguish them from the rest of Mankind by the greatness of his Benefits and to be worshipped by them upon that account For to all other Men he was a God in the Notion of a Creator but to them only he was a God in the Notion of a particular Benefactor The Memory of these particular Benefits are every where the chief Argument which he employeth to excite the Jews to his Service or reduce them to Obedience when gone astray Thus Esai XLI 8 9. But thou Israel art my servant Jacob whom I have chosen the seed of Abraham my friend Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth and called thee from the chief men thereof and said unto thee Thou art my servant I have chosen thee Could any thing be spoken more passionately or more effectual to gain the Devotion of that People whom if the Sense of being the Servant the Friend and the Chosen of God could not perswade to an exact Obedience the Dictates of Nature and common Principles of Reason would be little able to over-rule them Not only doth he own them in other places for his chosen People but as if for their sakes he disclaimed his Relation to the rest of Mankind he condescends to be in a peculiar manner called their God as Esai XLIII 14 15. Thus saith the Lord your Redeemer the holy one of Israel I am the Lord your holy One the Creator of Israel your King In urging the practice of his Commands he seldom makes use of his Supream Authority or Claims Obedience to them any otherwise than in Gratitude to those wonderful and signal Mercies Thus Ezek. XX. 5 6 7. reproving them for their Idolatry he justifies his Law whereby he had appropriated all Divine Worship to himself alone not from the Incommunicativeness of his Divine Nature but from the right which he had acquired by conferring on them those many Benefits Thus saith the Lord
and withal acknowledge that there is no other method whereby to obtain the one or escape the other but a hearty and sincere Repentance and yet with this Belief and Confession should continue in a state of Unrepentance Or if perhaps it may be possible that two such contrary things should consist together yet it cannot be denied but that by his Actions he proclaims his Unbelief to the World who neglects this necessary Duty of Repentance or which is all one deferrs to perform it This was the Second Head proposed namely the time prefixed by God to our Repentance To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts Or as the Apostle expresseth it Hebr. III. 13. While it is called to day Which may either import the term of our natural Life for that Repentance will take no place after Death agreeably to that of our Saviour John IX 4. The night cometh wherein no man can work So that Repentance being necessarily to be performed in this Life and no more of this Life being certain to us than that moment which we now enjoy it ought to commence from this very moment Or else which seems most natural and agreeable to the Design of the Psalmist and the Apostle in the III. of the Hebrews Repent to day That is immediately while God continueth his offers of Mercy before it be too late for that he will not await our Repentance till we please nor suffer his Goodness to be willfully slighted This term of Repentance fixed by God to every Man may be easily discovered as being no other than the first moment of his Conviction of the necessity of Repentance When that Conviction is once throughly formed when Men are fully satisfied that it is their indispensable Duty to conform themselves to the Will of God when they know withal that this Conformity consists in practising all the Divine Precepts of Holiness Justice and Sobriety and that all habitual Sins are an open Opposition to it when they are asâ—…ured that God hath proclaimed his Pardon to Penitent and denounced his Wrath to Impenitent Sinners Then is Life and Death truely set before them Then is it committed to their Choice which they will preferr An easie Choice one would imagine had not the deplorable Experience of so many obstinate Sinners taught us the unhappiness of Mankind in choosing the worse even under Convictions of their Interest and Obligation to the contrary If we enquire after the Cause of this miserable Perverseness we find indeed the Temptations to which Mankind is exposed to be very violent the Lusts of the World and the Flesh to be very powerful and the Pleasures of sin of a bewitching Nature Yet all this would not be sufficient to Master the Dictates of Reason and natural desire of true Happiness which is found in all did not an unhappy mistake misguide the practice of Men and render all the present Convictions of Conscience ineffectual Men are apt to raise false Notions from the Divine Attribute of infinite Mercy and flatter themselves with vain Hopes that the term prefixed by God to their Repentance is not yet expired that it will never be too late to begin their Repentance and in Vertue of it take out their Pardon This is that Deceitfulness of sin of which the Apostle warns us in the afore-mentioned place least any of us be hardened through it after the Example of the Jews of whom some when they had heard did provoke Verse 16. That is after a full Conviction of the Power and Veracity of God refused to obey his Commands or rely on his Pomises as in the Case of their refusal to go up and take possession of the Land which God had given to them related in the XIV of Numbers to which this Psalm particularly relates They immediately indeed repented of their Folly and resolved forthwith to take up Arms and enter upon the Design but then it was too late they had slipt their time and God refused to be among them or to give them Success It is frivolous therefore to plead the Hopes of continual offers of Pardon for deferring of Repentance and to pretend that if they exactly knew the time beyond which the Patience of God would not await they would immediately begin to form a sincere Repentance Such Resolutions may possibly be true and indeed unless a monstrous stupidity intervenes it cannot be otherwise But then the term is manifest and cannot be unknown to any being the moment from which we are convinced that it is our Duty to obey God and know what are the Rules and Measures of Obedience We must believe that God can do nothing irrational now the reasonableness of Pardon to sinful Man is founded either in the invincible ignorance of his Duty or in the Infirmity of his Nature prone to yield to powerful Temptations The latter supposeth an endeavour of Obedience and Piety and cannot consist with a fixed and resolved unrepentance for then every Sin will be the effect not of humane Infirmity but of Resolution The former Cause vanisheth when the Ignorance of Men is removed by a clear Revelation of the Will of God And therefore the Apostle tells the Athenians That God winked indeed at the times of ignorance but now after the Manifestation of the Gospel Willeth all men every where to repent As for us Christians we cannot pretend an Ignorance of our Duty much less those who have the Happiness to be Members of a Church so excellently Constituted We have the Scriptures open to us are admonished and incited to the Practice of our Duty by weekly Exhortations and disown all little Arts so usual in other Churches of procuring Salvation without a strict and real Obedience There remains then to us only the Plea of Infirmity whereby to excuse our Sins and not wholly to despair of the Divine Mercy This supposeth our sincere Endeavours of performing our Duty and a settled Course of Vertue and Piety in which Course we may be overtaken with Temptations and being unawares insuared by them may be betrayed into Sin while the Soul is clouded with a Passion and by violent impressions from the Body or outward Objects hath scarce the Liberty of directing her thoughts aright But if when this Tempest is allayed this Cloud removed when the Mind regains its perfect Freedom and enters into a serious thought of its Condition it entertains any Complacency with the Sin performed or is willing to permit a continuance of it this is no longer a Sin of Infirmity but of deliberate and resolved Choice much more when any Man resolves wholly to stand out against the Divine Command and Convictions of his own Conscience and to proceed in his unrepentance although but for a certain time This is a Sin of so heinous a Nature that no Pardon is promised to it under the Gospel nor indeed can it consist with the Justice and Holiness of God to give it And then even for Sins of Infirmity it is